Warlocks kind of unarguably bring more group utility than mages do, in dispels, healthstones, knockback, an instant AOE stun... while mages bring only a crit buff, heroism and their ability to cheese certain encounter mechanics with ice block and invisibility (marks on protectors for example).
Maybe the ability to reliably survive wipes and mass ress the group counts as utility too, my group appreciates it

The other half is murkier, my mage friends at the mage forum will constantly tell me that Warlocks are also the unarguable champions of doing more damage and as such there is literally no situation in which you would bring a mage but that doesn't match my personal experience very well so I'd like to see what the warlock forum thinks about it too.

Like Imnick said, Locks bring healthstones, mini dispels, a battle res, instant aoe stun, and they also take less damage with soul link then anyone. plus ember tap means more self heals if you are destro. Warlocks rival Mages dps for the top spots.

The only mages can bring is crit buff+heroism and some avoiding death mechanics.

Warlock utility is pretty good since they get Healthstones, Battle rez, Demonic Gateway, access to a dispel with the imp, access to a silence with the Observer, a 2-second AoE Stun (talent) and a knockback (depending on spec). The problem is, your raid will ask you to use that utility, so if you want to slack a bit you're out of luck

You shouldn't make your decision based on damage potential, since warlocks are getting nerfed. Gameplay is fun with both classes, with locks focusing on resource management and mages on cooldown management.

Warlock utility is pretty good since they get Healthstones, Battle rez, Demonic Gateway, access to a dispel with the imp, access to a silence with the Observer, a 2-second AoE Stun (talent) and a knockback (depending on spec). The problem is, your raid will ask you to use that utility, so if you want to slack a bit you're out of luck

You shouldn't make your decision based on damage potential, since warlocks are getting nerfed. Gameplay is fun with both classes, with locks focusing on resource management and mages on cooldown management.

I believe the glyph of eternal resolve + soul link combo isn't 30% but actually 28% dmg reduction. The glyph reduces incoming damage by 10%, then soul link splits 20% of the dmg taken to your pet. So say you get hit for 100 damage, the glyph reduces that to 90, then 20% of 90 is split to your pet, so you would end up taking 72 damage, which is a 28% dr.

Mages are like Hunters in the sense that they don't bring any raidutility in the form of unique cooldowns. You can't even compare the utlity between Warlocks and Mages because they are not even close to the same level. Our utility is great and I wouldn't want to sacrifice it for anything. The fact that we do high dmg and have great survivability as well makes me feel that we will get nerfed hard at some point.

Like Imnick said, Locks bring healthstones, mini dispels, a battle res, instant aoe stun, and they also take less damage with soul link then anyone. plus ember tap means more self heals if you are destro. Warlocks rival Mages dps for the top spots.

The only mages can bring is crit buff+heroism and some avoiding death mechanics.

What's with downplaying mage abilities?

Warlocks really only bring healthstones and the gate, which is situational because not a lot of fights really utilize the gate for great effect. DKs have an instant Rez which is superior, many classes give better stuns for fights that require them and Blink/Iceblock about equal out Warlocks damage reduction when you factor lifetap and fight mechanics.

Mages have Time Warp, AoE Root, Crit Buff, innate Counterspell, SpellSteal (situational), Remove Curse (situational), City Portals and of course Food which was until recently very important.

They're pretty equal classes when you don't account for fringe fights like Iron Quan that make great use of the portal. Bloodlust is a must-have and only Mages and Shamans have it reliably.

Sometimes i wonder, if people are looking at othr classes, at the moment, they say such things as "warlocks are so op...they take 30% less dmg and doing soooo much more dmg and have sooo much utility. These people should look at other classes. alsmot every class has some kind of dmg-reduce and shields and selfheal. Yes the flatout 28% dmgreduction and 50-100k hp more than other classes seems like OP, but cmon every other class has some kind of dmg-reduction and in most cases they don't even have to glyph or specc for it. Also every class cas some kind of stunn, root a.s.o. So basically except for HS and the situational gate there is no more utility than other classes.

Play what you like to play, more often than not people get hung up on sims but in reality most people will never come close to max sim dps. At the same time its no fun playing your heart out and being last on a consistent bases.

I've played a lock , prot war and resto/boom since vanilla and always swap between then per expansions. 7/14 h lock so im not great but im getting there and i feel right now we are far better than mages.

Like others have said healthstones , lock portal, tanky as f*** and aoe stun are pretty badass. Saved quite a few H naz with shadowfury.